Increasing AR-15 sales in Lee County are typical after high-profile mass shootings

Here are five things to know about the AR-15, one of the most popular rifles in the United States.

The AR-15 has become a popular choice of weapon, and sales of the rifles tend to soar when politicians start talking about enacting new gun laws, gun store owners said.(Photo: George Frey, Getty Images)

The AR-15 sat on the glass counter before being cradled in the arms of David Brady, a Cape Coral resident and retired law enforcement officer from El Paso, Texas.

Brady studied the rifle, the same classification of weapon used in the deaths of 17 teenaged students and teachers Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. After about 45 minutes of examining and discussing the rifle Tuesday at Guns 4 Less off Del Prado Boulevard in Cape Coral, Brady filled out the background check form, passed the background check phoned in by the store’s co-owner and then signed off on his credit card purchase. He planned on picking up the rifle the next day, although under Lee County law, he could have taken it home with him then and there.

In Lee County, gun buyers without a conceal and carry permit must wait three business days after passing a background check before taking home a handgun but zero days before bringing home a rifle. An AR-15 starts at $500 and runs up to $1,500-$2,000 for a higher end model.

The difference in the waiting period sounded crazy on the surface given the recent, high-profile shootings committed by the AR-15, said gun store co-owner Craig Scully, but it reflected reality.

There were 15,070 gun-related deaths in 2016 in the United States, according to FBI statistics. Of them, 11,004 were caused by handguns, while 374 were caused by rifles, less than 3 percent.

“I’ve been wanting one for years,” said Brady, who had been around the weapons as a member of the El Paso County Sheriff Department, from which he retired in 2012. He and his wife now work in trucking. “Honestly, I think this last shooting pushed me to finally do it.”

Anecdotal evidence suggested gun sales soar immediately after high-profile shootings like Parkland, Oct. 1 in Las Vegas, June 12, 2016 at Pulse nightclub in Orlando and especially after Dec. 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children between ages 6 and 7 were killed.

The irony of Brady’s timing is that he bought his AR-15 as a reaction to the potential for gun laws changing – and that he favors some changes.

“I don’t know what the answer is,” Brady said. “The last two big shootings, Vegas and Florida, the guns were purchased legally. Maybe we have to start screening for mental health. We’ve got to do a better job of screening the people who have mental health issues before they can obtain weapons. There are a few things I would not be opposed to. I am not in favor of banning the weapons altogether, because that’s not a solution to the problem.”

Scully, who has co-owned the store for six years, also wouldn’t be against gun law changes. But banning the AR-15 outright, he said, would be like banning SUVs in the crusade against drunk driving. It wouldn’t solve the problem. The store sells about 200 AR-15s per year, Scully said, but the vast majority of the store’s sales are handguns.

“I think it’s the most popular rifle in the country as far as sales go,” Scully said of the AR-15. “The bolt action guns have more recoil and are much more powerful. The AR-15, it’s much more comfortable to shoot.

“Any time people go on TV and start talking about gun control or banning this, banning that, what they’re really saying is, ‘Go out and buy one right away.’ It’s not like people are lining out the door, but we’ve sold a few extras in the past week.”

At Shooters Guns & Ammo off Hanson Street in Fort Myers, store owner Cody Collins expressed his disgust with mainstream media outlets calling the AR-15 an “assault weapon.” He made a fist and said it could be considered an assault weapon if he threw a punch with it.

“The little weapon on my hip could be an assault weapon if I come after you with it,” Collins said. “If you don’t want one now, you will, because the world is getting nuttier and nuttier all the time.”

The AR in AR-15 stands for Armalite rifle, not “assault rifle.” It references a brand of gun but has come to mean a classification of the rifles with a common interface.

Collins, 67 and a 1971 graduate of Fort Myers High School, has owned the gun shop for about five years. He did not favor any gun law changes. He viewed guns as a sport like archery, throwing darts or baseball.

“There should be fewer laws on everything,” Collins said. “How’s anyone going to know when you snap? How is anyone going to know?”

Down the street at Wet Dreams Custom Shop, a consignment gun store, manager Phil Francisco, 31 and a 2004 Mariner High School graduate, said he would be in favor of some gun law changes. But he doubted Democrats and Republicans could compromise on anything in the current political climate.

“I’m not a legislator,” Francisco said. “Do I believe there is room for improvement? Yes. Both sides of the argument have valid points, and both sides of the argument are equally ridiculous as the other.”

Politicians talking about enacting tougher gun laws could spur sales, he said, but they haven’t in the past week at his store.

“Obama was one of the best salesmen we’ve ever had,” Francisco said of the former president, who cut short a visit to Fort Myers on July 20, 2012, following a mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises". Twelve people were murdered and 70 injured. James Holmes was convicted of the crimes. He used an AR-15, a shotgun and at least one of two handguns.

“We don’t get a run on guns unless there’s going to be a perceived scarcity in the market,” Francisco said.

Increasing security at schools and improving background checks to search for mental illnesses are two favored forms of solutions to mass shootings from the gun store owners.

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